


hip to hip, knee to knee

by gladdecease



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: Episode Tag, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-27
Updated: 2008-04-27
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:37:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They watched that video fourteen times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hip to hip, knee to knee

The first viewing was spent explaining the song and pointing out all the cameos for Barney. He watched in awe, bursting into laughter at appropriate moments and bringing a smile to her face. It was a relief to share the video. It was friendly, comfortable. Really... really nice.

He took the remote out of her hands and rewound the tape. "Do you want to watch it again?"

Robin smiled, remembering something new to point out. "Go ahead."

The second, fourth, and sixth through eleventh viewings, they laughed at Simon, and Robin Sparkles' hair, and the eighties (well, the Canadian nineties) in general. At how lame it all was, from the Alan Thick father figure smoking a pipe in a den _on the beach_ , to Tiffany the Catholic schoolgirl (though Barney didn't mind the outfit in the least, the hair was another thing entirely).

It was still comfortable. Robin smiled at Barney's shoulder as it shook when he laughed, and looked back at the video when he glanced her way.

The third viewing was spent listing all the ways twenty-seven year old Robin was so much awesomer than sixteen year old Robin. Barney kept pausing the video to make a point, taking nearly twice as long to watch the video as a straight viewing. Robin smiled at the praise and flattery, an out of character shyness twisting in her stomach that alcohol couldn't.

The fifth viewing was spent pointing how all the ways the video was secretly a tampon commercial. Barney had her cracking up as he tied all of it together in a huge conspiracy that would have had her eventually starring in porn.

"It starts with the modeling," he said, "then the pop stardom. After a few hits comes tampons and the pill, and it's only a matter of time before you're in porn."

"So, what you're saying," she interrupted, giggling, "is that it's a good thing this video tanked, or I'd be a porn star now?"

"I never said it was a _good_ thing."

Robin waited for elaboration.

Barney looked at her sideways, looking like he didn't believe she didn't already get it. "If you starred in porn, it would be really _hot_ porn." The " _duh_ " face he wore as he said that had her in giggles until they finished rewinding the tape again, though that scotch and soda she had earlier probably helped.

The twelfth viewing, Robin was suddenly aware of how close they were sitting on the couch. They had started out with a foot of space between them, Barney awkward with excitement and Robin awkward with nerves, and somehow they had gotten closer and closer together as the night went on. And now his knee was touching her knee.

She glanced at Barney sideways as he laughed at something in the video again. They were sitting next to each other, hip to hip, knee to knee, and he wasn't reacting. She didn't think he was.

Robin looked back at the video, and could feel his eyes on her, burning her skin with warm glances and happy smiles and honest laughter.

The thirteenth viewing their shoulders were touching, and Robin couldn't look at Barney. If she turned to look at him, and he turned to look at her, she thought their noses might touch. And if their noses touched

Well, Robin couldn't think about it either.

The fourteenth viewing, they reached for the remote at the same time to rewind the video. A bit of fumbling between them, fingers brushing wrists, and they looked at anything but each other for the long minute it took to rewind, trying to make the sensation fade. The tape finished rewinding, and Robin pressed play. She set the remote down and closed her eyes as the opening bars played.

Silence.

Barney wasn't watching the video, she realized. He wasn't laughing or making perverse commentary or pointing out something silly or

Oh.

He was looking at her. It was like she'd thought; their noses were almost brushing, and she was far too aware of where his hands were - at his side, and slowly, oh so very _very_ slowly, moving to brush against her waist. And his _eyes_ , the look in his eyes

"Robin?"

He didn't sound like Barney; he was too choked up and looking at her like he had back at the bar, like he _really_ meant what he'd said about her. Like he

She grabbed his tie with one hand and moved closer, not letting herself think about what that look meant.

"Sandcastles in the Sand" played in the background as they kissed.

By the time the video ended for the fourteenth time, the couch was long empty.


End file.
